Thursday, November 15, 2012

It's An Honor Just to Be Nominated

I began working in television a little more than 22 years ago. Tonight I got the biggest perk in my career - I've been nominated for a regional Emmy!

The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences divides local television stations up by region. I have been an active member since I enrolled myself in 1994. I am currently in the Nashville/Midsouth chapter.

Local Emmys are just like the national ones you see on TV (when "The Daily Show" & HBO dramas win everything) except done by the regional chapters.* Stations & individual members enter their own work. Then another chapter somewhere else in the country screens & votes on the entries. When I was working in Cleveland, we voted on the Dallas/Fort Worth chapter's entries.

So, I've entered several times over the years, but have never been nominated until now. I am nominated in the Director/News category for an episode of my show, "North Carolina Now," that we did in advance of Hurricane Irene. It's actually a really good show & a good example of my work. We had to scramble a bare-bones crew to produce a program on a day we wouldn't normally have done so, & we pulled together a lot of last-minute elements with that small group of folks. Plus we were doing the show on short notice & needing to adapt with very little prep time. Additionally, I was producing a lot of this particular episode as well as directing it - & stuff changed as we were on air, so we were regrouping on the fly in the control room. All good elements for an example of good directing!

There are a total of 3 directors nominated in the category. I don't know the other two, but I know that one of them works at the #1 station in our market, & the other's entry title sounds really impressive. So I don't know what the odds are here, but it's still a totally cool recognition of my efforts.

The awards banquet - when the winners will be announced - is in Nashville at the end of January & Bruce & I are going. We're going to get all dressed up & have a good time - no matter the outcome - because it is an honor just to be nominated!

*Regional Emmy ceremonies are not televised nationally, & sometimes not even regionally, but I am keeping an eye out to see if it will be streamed online for my folks to be able to watch. :-)